Kerri’s victory is not just great news for her and for us, but is another positive indicator of how the tide is changing in favor of teachers and public education. Running as a teacher on a platform that included pushing the district to “enrich its academic programs to ‘meet the needs of all students.’ and advocating additional autonomy and flexibility for teachers,” she garnered nearly twice as many votes as one of her opponents whose goal was to save money, in part by looking at teacher contracts, “a major part of the budget.”

Please join us in congratulating Kerri. She will no doubt serve the Mt. Sinai community with the same dedication, passion, and excellence that she has been providing to our students.

While this is not the slam-dunk we were hoping for (which would have been a ruling that would invalidate the use of value-added measures to evaluate teachers) it’s still great news. The ruling applies only to Lederman’s rating, with the judge stating that “he could not rule beyond the individual case . . . because regulations around the evaluation system have been changed,” but it sets an important precedent.

Bruce Lederman, Sheri’s husband/lawyer, said he believes this is the first time that a teacher’s evaluation has been overturned by a court, and says “The decision should qualify as persuasive authority for other teachers challenging growth scores throughout the country.” Additionally it provides great evidence for lobbying efforts to eliminate the use of value-added measures, something especially important as the Regents and NYSED begin their work to explore the way tests are being used for evaluations.